Typhoid Fever

Do you ever recall yourself, when you were young, did you get sick and need a doctor?

I had typhoid fever.  And the doctor, that was in Goldboro then, he had to go in the service, as a doctor.  And he had a woman doctor come in his place.  And she was the one that tended me.

How old would you have been?

I don't think I'd be over five or six years, but I can remember.  I can remember lying in bed.  I didn't even open my eyes, but they would come in and look at me, and then they'd go out again.  They'd see I was still breathing, anyway.  But I can remember that part of it.  And I don't know...there was nothing they could do for it.  No, you know, there was no drugs then. And I don't think there's any drugs for typhoid fever anyway...I don't know what they would do for it.

There was a maiden lady, that lived down over the hill from where I lived, she had it at the same time.  

Who was that?

Rosie Burke [Helena Rosamund Burke], you've heard us talk of her.  She'd be...Lester Burke's aunt.

Did she have a store?

Yes, she did, in later years, she had a little store.

She lived, from the typhoid...?

Oh yes, yeah.  Yep, we both struggled through it.  

And I used to go down there and visit.  One day I went down, and they...had duck stew for dinner then, boy, you'd need a stomach!  And then, after a while, this lady looked out the window, and she saw my father looking down my grandmother's well.  And she said--she always called him Willie; his name was William--"Willie must have dropped something...lost a bucket in the well."  And she went to the door and she hollered out--it wasn't too far--she said, "Willie!  Have you lost something?"  He said, "Yes, we lost Beryl, and we can't find her anywhere!"  He thought I had fallen in the well!  She said, "Well, she's here, having dinner with us!"  He said, "Tell her to get home as quick as she can!"  I was enjoying the duck stew.  Oh, dear.